Those purchasing the top model will have the choice between the standard Elegance design package or the Atmosphere package. Elegance stands for a technical interior design dominated by metal and cool colour tones; Atmosphere is a warm interior environment where wood and natural tones prevail.

As expected this variant comes loaded with technology systems to aid the driver and increase safety and technologies like the active all-wheel steering system makes the Touareg as easy to handle as a compact car.

*While Volkswagen claims this is “the most powerful SUV with a diesel engine from a German manufacturer,” that’s not entirely true. Depending on the market, you may still be able to buy a brand new Audi SQ7 TDI (with which the Touareg V8 TDI shares its engine), which is actually a bit more powerful at 429 hp (320 kW). It’s not even the most powerful Touareg to date considering the first generation of the model had a 12-cylinder variant with 444 hp (331 kW).